(TibetanReview.net, Mar20, 2014) After having promised full compliance with the UN human rights treaties and cooperation with its mechanisms only late last year in order to win a seat on the UN Human Rights Council at Geneva, China has now rejected almost all the recommendations to address or improve the deplorable situation in occupied Tibet.

Conveying its response to the United Nations’s universal periodic review (UPR) of its human rights record and its recommendations in pursuance thereof adopted on Oct 25, 2013, China has claimed that with regard to the seven of them pertaining specifically to Tibet, one, which is of general description, had already been implemented; another one accepted, and the remaining five, which were the substantive ones, rejected. The rejected recommendations included those pertaining to freedom of expression, religion and assembly as well as the protection of Tibetan people’s cultural, ethnic and linguistic identity, besides means of livelihood.

The UPR Working Group report’s only recommendation accepted by China was that of Switzerland, urging it to facilitate the visits of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and special rapporteurs to Tibet.

With regard to the recommendation by the United States that it protect the rights of ethnic minority groups, including Tibetans, Uighurs, and Mongolians, in accordance with China’s Constitution and international human rights commitments, China has claimed that it was already being implemented and, therefore, accepted.

Each UN member state undergoes the UPR process every four years. During this process, members’ human rights records are reviewed while other member states give recommendations on how the state under review can improve its human rights environment. The reviewed state can accept or reject these recommendations. This is China’s second UPR, the first one being in 2009.

The Council will adopt China’s UPR Working Group Report on Mar 19 at which time Beijing will inform the Council which recommendations made by the member states it will accept or reject for the next four years.